Mettlemouse’s Sarah Tyekiff

This past summer, BBC Studios made an investment in Mettlemouse Entertainment, the new unscripted formats indie set up by Sarah Tyekiff. As the former head of unscripted at Lime Pictures, Tyekiff ran the U.K. and U.S. slate and has maintained and refreshed a slew of long-running brands, including TOWIE, Geordie Shore and Celebs Go Dating. She has developed and produced a number of new formats, including Dance Monsters, Stand Up and Deliver and Who Do You Believe? Before Lime, she was an executive producer at ITV, working across brands such as Hell’s Kitchen and the relaunch of Saturday Night Takeaway and helped to grow I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! Tyekiff talks to TV Formats Weekly about bringing her expertise in the entertainment business to the new Mettlemouse venture and what the support of BBC Studios means for the company.

TV FORMATS: What led to the creation of Mettlemouse?
TYEKIFF: Throughout my career, I’ve had the pleasure of working on some of the biggest entertainment shows within some hugely successful companies. After 20 years of working in the unscripted television business, it felt like the right time to take those positive learnings, forge my own path and shape something from the start.

TV FORMATS: What did you learn from your time at Lime Pictures—and having worked on some major entertainment brands—that you’ve brought with you to Mettlemouse?
TYEKIFF: Working at such a successful production company that spans so many genres allowed me to really lean into the broader workings of an independent production company. I had the chance to work alongside two incredible managing directors, Kate Little and Claire Poyser, who taught me a lot from a commercial point of view as well as focusing on the U.S. market. Selling and producing shows in the U.S. alongside All3Media America was invaluable and made me appreciate a great idea is one thing, but how it’s executed is crucial depending on which market you’re making it for.

TV FORMATS: What types of formats will Mettlemouse be bringing to the international landscape?
TYEKIFF: We have three main focuses over the first 18 months that bring all our strengths together as a team: bold and original factual entertainment and entertainment reality formats, big studio entertainment shows and celebrity-led docuseries. We’re focused on the U.K. and U.S. markets initially and, in particular, how we can hub those formats to make them attractive to both markets.

TV FORMATS: How did the BBC Studios investment come about? And what does this bring to the company overall?
TYEKIFF: It was key for me starting up that the investor was someone that would really fit with the business plan, ambition and scale of shows we want to produce. Right from the offset BBC Studios were able to offer all of those things. With operations in every major market and with a very current ambition for expansion, partnering up felt like a very exciting proposition.

TV FORMATS: What’s working best in the entertainment/format marketplace today?
TYEKIFF: Reality gameplay and strategy is having its moment right now. The Traitors has been a huge success here in the U.K. Survivor is back. Surviving Paradise has taken some traditional reality tropes and added an exciting level of gameplay to create something new, and Destination X is lined up to join that list. It’s great for Mettlemouse, as we’ve had success with all these types of formats in the past, so we are well-placed to create the next big hit in this area.

TV FORMATS: How risk-averse are U.K. broadcasters at the moment with regard to entertainment commissioning? How about for the rest of the international market?
TYEKIFF: It’s fair to say there has been a lot of conversation this year about the state of the unscripted market. However, there are opportunities out there and the positive feedback we’re currently getting is that, due to the huge competition for eyeballs, buyers are definitely looking for more original and noisy ideas that can grab viewers’ attention.

As creatives, you have to remain positive and keep developing and pitching because someone has to win that slot. Currently, the international market feels slightly more robust than the U.K. market; with commercial revenue down here, that impacts the buying power of some of the major U.K. networks.

TV FORMATS: Where do you see the greatest opportunities in the format landscape as you look ahead?
TYEKIFF: It’s clear that there is a real push for the 9 p.m. slot on linear channels in the U.K. How do we target a broad audience mid-week? We have factual through to reality departments all asking for something groundbreaking and big in that slot. For the streamers, it’s actually the same kind of content but formatted in a way that works for how they want to deliver it to their audiences.

No one can predict what the viewers will flock to—we saw that with The Traitors—but I do think they want to be excited and engaged, and that comes from commissioning new shows rather than repurposing old successes. And doing that takes bravery because inevitably some won’t work. But you’re never going to find the next big hit without being brave.